[ALSC-Forum] Re: [ga-ext] On-Line Voting

[Jeff Williams]

Thomas and all,

Thomas Roessler wrote:

> [Electronic election studies on the ALSC web site.]
>
> On 2001-05-17 19:00:21 -0400, Danny Younger wrote:
>
> >Both of these studies imply that on-line elections are not
> >technologically feasible at this time.  I am worried that if the
> >ALSC does not itself commission a study on how to actually make
> >such elections feasible, the currently cited arguments might
> >prevail in the absence of countervailing studies.
>
> I wouldn't expect that you get countervailing studies of real weight
> when the same set of questions is asked.

  Well this is and interesting opinion.  BUt one that does not stand up
under scrutiny.  The USG uses online voting for military folks that
are outside of the US during elections or on board ships for instance,
comes to mine.  In the 1996 US national election, Internet voting
was done in some states in selective areas in those states.  Worked
just fine!

>
>
> However, the question you should really ask yourself when looking at
> his paper is this: From where is he starting?  From where are we
> starting?
>
> Rubin's topic is to investigate the suitability of Internet voting
> as a replacement for a system which is perceived as highly secure
> and stable, and thought to be well understood.  (Or, maybe, which
> used to be regarded that way before the Great Reocunt. ;)
>
> That is, he asks whether electronic elections should be performed
> INSTEAD of traditional elections.

  No not instead of, but in addition to or as and alternative.

>  He does NOT suggest that no
> elections at all should be held because they are insecure!

  That is because the case for being insecure cannot be factually
made.

>
>
> The ICANN situation is vastly different: To begin with, a dismissal
> of electronic elections would mean that there are no elections at
> all.  Thus, the question the ALSC should ask is not: Can electronic
> elections be made so perfect that they can replace traditional
> elections?

 Yes, they can and are in progress in doing so...  (See my above
comments and other ML list archives from about a year and a
half ago for further information)  Also see www.fec.gov

> - But: Can electronic elections be performed well enough
> so we can kind of accept their results?

  Well of course!  Unless you are paranoid...  Than maybe not.

> Not: Is it better than the
> system we already have? - But: Is it good enough so we can do it at
> all?
>
> Obviously, this question could easily lead to different conclusions,
> based on the very same facts as, say, Rubin's paper.
>
> >As I believe that ICANN does escrow worldwide registrant data, it
> >should (in my uninformed opinion) be possible to send an encrypted
> >time-sensitive one-time-use email to every registrant worldwide as
> >an election ballot.  Is this within the realm of possibility?
>
> There isn't any strong e-mail encryption technology which has been
> deployed down to the last registrant.

  What!!!??  Says who?  Have your ever heard of PKI or elliptical
Curve Encryption?

>
>
> Also, there is still not much cryptographic authentication of
> registrants or contacts being done - I know of one ccTLD which
> accepts requests via telefax or letter only, and considers
> signatures (as in: pen on paper) on these faxes or letters as
> sufficient authentication. (Bad enough, they only have a sample of
> the admin contact's signature, but let the tech contact do critical
> changes to the domain.  Ups.) Of course, this ccTLD doesn't have any
> cryptographic keys from registrants.
>
> Finally, the registrant data isn't collected securely, so all
> concerns about secure voter registration would persist.

  Secure registration is possible and not too difficult to do if
the proper encryption algorithms are implemented.

>
>
> (Hell, there is less verification done on gtld domain name holders
> than on ICANN voters last year.)
>
> Your proposal would lead nowhere.
>
> --
> Thomas Roessler                        http://log.does-not-exist.org/
> --
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
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CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
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